09 March 2007
More housing associations are planning to give tenants the opportunity to purchase shares in their homes.
Bids from a further 35 registered social landlords that wish to offer Social Homebuy have been accepted by the Housing Corporation, after a poor response to the scheme last year.
The new bids take the total number of RSLs offering Social Homebuy to 78 – including four associations that began piloting the scheme 12 months ago. Providing there is sufficient interest, more than 2,000 households could sign up during the next year.
Richard Hill, programme director at the corporation, said it was pleased that more RSLs had come forward after bidding was reopened in October. But it was impossible to predict exactly how many tenants would take part. 'This is not like a new-build programme where we can guarantee completions. It's much more demand-led,' he said.
Under the scheme, tenants buy at least 25% of their home and pay rent on the remainder until they can afford larger shares.
PFmar2007
